River States Conference

David Baker Earns NAIA All-American Honors

3/11/2011 12:00:00 AM

Fourth-year David Baker became St. Louis College of Pharmacy's first-ever NAIA All-American on Saturday, March 5, at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Geneva, Ohio. Baker took sixth place in the one mile run, finishing in 4:13.50.

Baker's journey to nationals began at the Missouri Collegiate Challenge in Columbia, Mo., on February 18, when he and fellow Eutectic Amr Abualnadi qualified for the NAIA national championships. Baker ran a PR and STLCOP record in the one mile with a time of 4:19.82, .78 seconds faster than the automatic qualifying standard for nationals.

He came into the national championships ranked 10^th of 21 individual qualifiers. On Friday, March 4, running in the first of two heats, Baker knew he had to finish the preliminaries in the top 10 to qualify for the finals the next day.

"My goal at nationals was to first, not throw up before the race," Baker laughed, "and second, to make it to the finals." He did just that, shaving three seconds off his time and crossing the finish line at 4:16.91 in ninth-place overall.

"When I finished the prelim, I swore I didn't make it," Baker said. "But, then Coach came running over with a huge grin on his face. Then my goal was, of course, to get All-American."

At the finals on Saturday, Baker put it into high gear to achieve that goal, running another three seconds faster than prelims.

"Entering the last lap of the race, I knew I was in 6^th place - that last All-American spot," said Baker. Feeling as though he had reached his top gear, Baker was caught off-guard when two runners challenged him from both sides with about 100 meters left. "That was when I decided I had to get it -I may never be this close again," Baker said. "So, I kicked it up rounding the final corner and down the home stretch I passed two guys to get sixth place. It was the greatest feeling to cross that line, knowing I made it."